"Enough of using Lebanon and the Middle East!", Pope cries outChristians, key to Lebanon's stabilityA dream called LebanonThree years ago, on August 4, 2020, world public opinion was focused on the tremendous explosion in the port of Beirut, capital of Lebanon. What has happened since that terrible day?
Lebanon is a millenary country in the Middle East where very diverse cultures and peoples have lived and continue to live. The Bible mentions Lebanon at least seventy times. For a long time it was a largely Christian country, although today it is estimated that only thirty percent of the Lebanese are Christian.
Twentieth century and early twenty-first century
The recent history of this country is full of lights and shadows. After the First World War, Lebanon ceased to be part of the Ottoman Empire and remained under French mandate for 20 years. Independence came on November 22, 1943. The first years of independent institutional life were characterized by relative stability and progress. Lebanon was known as the Switzerland of the Middle East, and Beirut was considered the cultural capital of the Arab world. Unfortunately, tensions between the different groups triggered a civil war between 1975 and 1990 that left 100,000 dead and a deep wound in the collective memory.
Then followed years of some internal tranquility until the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005 and the fateful summer of 2006 marked by the 33-day war between Israel and the paramilitary group "Hezbollah" (the "party of God"), during which about 1300 people were killed. After 10 years of reconstruction efforts following the civil war, the country was again partially destroyed.
Five years later, in 2011, Lebanon will again be affected by conflict. That year, the civil war in Syria started. This resulted in one and a half million (it is not easy to make a precise estimate) Syrian refugees starting to arrive in Lebanon fleeing the war. The shock was great for the small size of the country and its five million inhabitants.
Lebanon today
But it was in 2019, when the country went financially bankrupt and a major political, social and economic crisis was generated. Massive street protests began on October 17, 2019 and only ended with the other major crisis triggered by Covid in early 2020. The coup de grace came with the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020 that destroyed much of the city and left hundreds dead. The images and videos went around the world because of how impressive it all was. The explosion was the event that somehow summed up in one afternoon all the dramas that the country was experiencing.
The situation caused many people, including many Christians, to lose hope and decide to leave the country where they were born to seek a better future for their families. To this day, three years after this tragedy, it is not well known what happened and whoever dares to investigate the facts may end badly.
Thus, the country is immersed in a serious crisis from which there is no way out in the short term. There is no President of the Republic, electricity and water services are very deficient, the currency has lost practically all its value and many people want to emigrate.
In the midst of this dark and difficult situation, the feast of the great local saint, St. Charbel, celebrated a few days ago (third Sunday of July in the Maronite rite), came to give light and hope to the Lebanese people. Those who have come to Lebanon will have been surprised to discover this great national figure everywhere. In addition to being present in the churches or monasteries that abound in the country, the face of this old hermit monk is on bars, tattoos, buses, buildings, streets. This face radiates peace and serenity so necessary in regions of war.
The life of St. Charbel
Charbel was born in 1828 into a humble family in Biqa' kafrâ, a village located at an altitude of 1,600 meters in the mountainous north of Lebanon. His parents, deeply Christian peasants, passed on their faith to their five children and gave them the example of a pious life. Youssef, the youngest of them, was characterized from an early age by his piety and virtues. Moved in part by the example of his two hermit monk uncles, he felt called to enter the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk. He stayed there for a year before being sent in 1852 to St. Maron Monastery in Annaya, where he entered the Lebanese Maronite order under the name of Charbel.
Father Charbel lived a life that was tremendously austere and completely turned towards eternity, centered on constant dialogue with God and on the EucharistHe had very few contacts with other people. Only on certain occasions, at the request of his superiors, did he receive people seeking his spiritual advice because his fame as a man of God spread throughout the country. He was also entrusted with some missions outside the monastery, which he fulfilled with a great spirit of obedience and discretion.
Charbel died at the age of 70, on December 24, 1898, during the Christmas vigil. His superior summarized his luminous life in the written record: "faithful to his vows, of exemplary obedience, his conduct was more angelic than human".
The saint of miracles
After his death, the fame of the Lebanese saint spread prodigiously and impressive miracles were quickly attributed to him, especially healings, which to this day continue to attract countless people to Annaya, in the Lebanese mountains, to pray before his mortal remains and to visit the places where he lived saintly. While during his lifetime Charbel limited his social contacts to a minimum, today some three million visitors come to see him each year.
It is not uncommon to hear in Lebanon of someone to whom Charbel has done a small or big favor lately. Not for nothing is it said that St. Charbel is the saint who performs the most miracles, and not only for Christians. Indeed, people from all over the world come to Anaya and many Muslims also come to pray to him.
Since his death, more than 29,000 miracles have been attributed to him, of which 10% have benefited unbaptized people. The first of these was a mysterious light illuminating his tomb shortly after his death, which attracted many people. St. Charbel continues to be a light for the Lebanese people, Christians and Muslims, in this crisis that the country of the millenary Cedar is going through.
Prayer for Lebanon
The following is the prayer for Lebanon of the Cardinal Bechara RaïMaronite Patriarch of Antioch and all the East:
"Lord, help the Lebanese, all Lebanese, to be able to resist, to have the patience to preserve their spiritual, moral and national values. And You, Lord, You always intervene in history when You want and at the time You want. But we know well, we are convinced that You will intervene to help this Lebanon and these Lebanese who live in hope and who pray. In Lebanon, the people are a praying people. Lord, listen to their prayer!
